Alesha Dixon: Mis-Teeq were told they’d fail because they are black

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Alesha Dixon: Mis-Teeq were told they’d fail because they are black

Alesha Dixon claims Mis-Teeq were told they’d fail because they are black.

The star has opened up about the racism the group – completed by Sabrina Washington and Su-Elise Nash – faced early in their career, and she accused one label executive of suggesting their skin colour could be a barrier to success.

She told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: "I was thinking about something a record company executive said to me once, which was that black girls won’t sell records in the UK.

"When Mis-Teeq came on the scene we were very conscious of the fact we were a black girl group from the UK and there weren’t really many others who looked like us."

The 40-year-old star – who had big hits with her bandmates including ‘All I Want’ and ‘Scandalous’ – revealed even her own father was against her pursuing a career as a musician.

She added: "Telling your parents you want to be in a girl group sounds ludicrous, and I can understand why any parent would be nervous about that.

"But he was more worried because we were women of colour. He felt like that was a reason we shouldn’t pursue it because it might go against us.

"Actually that fuelled us to make us want to work even harder, to say, ‘No, we won’t be identified by that.’ "

Meanwhile, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ judge Alesha – who has released four solo albums since the band’s split in 2005 – recently admitted she won’t rule out a reunion. of the R&B/garage trio.

She previously said: "We talk about it. I saw Su-Elise a couple of weeks ago, she came to my birthday party and we actually ended up doing a full on PA during my birthday party which was quite nice. We have got a little Mis-Teeq WhatsApp group.

"We are talking. Never say never. I would love to do something again with the girls but I don’t know what shape or form that would be.

"We haven’t got any plans set in stone but we’re talking. I think if we did something again, we would want it to happen quite organically."